BAALBEK, Lebanon: The Syrian army and Hezbollah Thursday recaptured a large strategic territory in Syria’s Qalamoun region following clashes that killed and wounded dozens of jihadis, security sources said, in fresh hostilities that threatened to further drag Lebanon into the Syrian war.

Hezbollah and Syrian troops seized five “strategic hills” in the eastern part of Qalamoun, taking control over the towns of Assal al-Ward and Al-Juba, the sources said. The Islamist militants had seized the two towns in previous battles.

While the sources said Thursday’s clashes left 23 jihadis killed or wounded, Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV said at least 10 militants were killed.

There was no immediate report on any casualties among Hezbollah fighters and Syrian troops.

The area is located around 35 kilometers from the northeastern Lebanese border town of Arsal.

The Syrian army and Hezbollah have succeeded in linking the rugged mountainous terrain of Assal al-Ward with Arsal’s mountainous area, the sources said.

Security sources said the militants, led by the Nusra Front, Syria’s Al-Qaeda affiliate, clashed with Hezbollah-backed Syrian troops along several combat zones, including the Assal al-Ward-Juba front.

Assal al-Ward is a strategic position that overlooks Lebanese border towns where Hezbollah has a heavy presence.

According to the sources, Syrian warplanes also carried out a series of air raids on militant positions in Qalamoun, killing and wounding dozens of jihadi fighters.

Al-Manar TV aired a footage showing what it said were “convoys of the Syrian army and the resistance mujahedeen” walking in “liberated areas” in Assal al-Ward.

Various kinds of arms, including mortar bombs, ammunition and military equipment, were shown in the footage. “Terror routes have been cut off,” Al-Manar TV said in its news bulletin.

A Hezbollah mortar attack Wednesday in the Qalamoun region killed three Islamist commanders, Al-Manar said. It wrote on its Twitter account that the Nusra commander in Al-Juba, the leader of as-Suqur al-Muhammadiyya Brigade, and the commander of the Ras al-Maarra operation, were all killed the attack.

The report said Hezbollah targeted “a gathering of militant commanders and military vehicles.”

Hezbollah said Wednesday its fighters had retaken part of a hilltop in Lebanon’s eastern border area known as Khirbat al-Nahla overlooking the Syrian side of Qalamoun.

But rebel group Jaish al-Fatah Qalamoun said on social media sites they had repelled the assault which Hezbollah has been rumored to have been planning for months.

Thursday’s clashes came two days after a Hezbollah ambush killed at least 15 Nusra militants on the outskirts of the Lebanese border enclave of Tfail.

The renewed fighting comes amid expectations of a wide Syrian government and Hezbollah offensive in the Qalamoun mountainous region across the border from Lebanon against ISIS and the Nusra Front. Hezbollah fighters captured a border village there this week.

Syrian regime forces have been battling rebel groups and the Nusra Front in the Qalamoun region, which lies north of Damascus and runs along the Lebanese border.

Lebanese officials have warned Hezbollah against launching a major cross-border attack, which they say would draw Lebanon further into the 4-year-old Syrian conflict.

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah vowed Tuesday to oust rebels from the Qalamoun region, saying the situation “needs radical treatment,” but without saying when the assault would start.

In April 2014, regime forces backed by Hezbollah took control of most of Qalamoun, but hundreds of rebel fighters remain entrenched in the mountainous region.

Rami Abdel-Rahman, the head of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, confirmed that regime forces and Hezbollah seized control of a number of hilltops overlooking Assal al-Ward. “What is taking place is a battle with slow advances, not a big military operation,” he told AFP.